Police investigate two more gang attacks

Jason Burke

DELHI: Indian police are investigating two new cases of gang rape, one of a bus passenger in north-western Punjab state, the other of a woman who got off a train in a remote area in the state of Bihar and was assaulted and killed.

The incidents are likely to fuel the continuing clamour for widespread change in India, coming four weeks after a deadly attack on a student on a moving bus in the capital Delhi led to outrage, anger, grief and thousands of people taking to the streets demanding legal and policing reforms to combat sexual violence.

The victim of the incident in Punjab was a 29-year-old woman travelling to her village in Gurdaspur district, 450 kilometres from Delhi, on Friday night, police officials said. The driver refused to stop at her village despite her repeated pleas and instead drove her, the only passenger on the bus, to a remote farmhouse where he and the bus conductor were joined by five friends, who took turns raping her throughout the night.

Details of the second attack are still sketchy and unconfirmed. Local police have said the 32-year-old victim got down from a stationary train between stations and was sexually assaulted by a group of unidentified, inebriated men in an orchard.